The Adelie penguin is a common sight along the entire Antarctic coast and nearby islands. With the exception of the storm petrel, they are the most southerly ranging of all seabirds. They are also the smallest of all the penguins living on the Antarctic continent. In 1830, French explorer Dumont d’Urville discovered them and named them for his wife, Adelie.

These penguins are usually about 12-20 inches in length, and weigh no more than 10 pounds, but some can be as much as 27 inches tall. Their abdomen and the underside of their flippers are white. Distinctive marks are the white ring surrounding the eye and the feathers at the base of the bill. Almost all of the red bill is concealed by these long feathers. Since their tail is a little longer than that of other penguins the long tail feathers drag on the ground as they walk.

With their exaggerated formality — they are wearing a tuxedo after all — combined with a determined waddle, and their often comic antics at play, these penguins are a delight to watch. Although most of us will never get any closer to these droll little characters than the TV set or the zoo, it is still a pleasure to watch them as they go about their daily routine, often with unintentionally hilarious results.

One of the reasons so many of us like penguins is the fact that they are highly social creatures, and the Adelie penguin is no different. They nest and breed on rocky, ice-free beaches in large colonies of up to ten thousand birds. And the adults even go to the sea to search for food in groups. Of course safety as well as companionship plays a role in this, as many pairs of eyes on the look-out for predators such as sea lions, etc., are certainly more effective than one pair.

Adelie penguins begin the march to their breeding grounds in October walking many miles over sea-ice. The males arrive at the site first with the females following a few days later. When the urge to mate is upon them, the males summon the females with a low guttural noise followed by a loud cry that could only be considered appealing by a female penguin.

Their nests consist of many small stones carried in the birds’ beaks and dropped into place. This is a time-consuming process, but the birds work diligently until it is completed. Then the female lays 2 greenish eggs. The eggs are tended by both parents with the males taking turns incubating the eggs as well as guarding them.

Unlike Emperor penguins male Adelie penguins do not balance the eggs on their feet to keep them warm. They have what is called a brood patch on their stomach — an area of bare skin with no feathers — which enables them to sit on the eggs just like the females do.

Incubating the eggs takes 30-40 days. During this time the parent who is incubating the eggs does not eat, while the other swims out to sea and catches its fill of krill, their main source of food. Krill are shrimp-like invertebrates that live in large schools, called swarms. These penguins will also eat Antarctic silverfish and glacial squid, but in nowhere near the quantities they consume krill.

They are powerful swimmers and have a special gland in their nose that eliminates the salt from ocean water, enabling them to eat the fish, etc., they catch while still in the water. Another unusual fact about these penguins is that they don’t drink water but instead quench their thirst by eating snow.

The chicks differ from the adults in appearance until they are 14 months of age. They have a soft gray down minus the white ring around the eyes and their chin is white instead of black.

After about 4 weeks of constant nurturing by their parents, the chicks are ready to be on their own. While their parents search for food, they gather together in large groups with the other chicks. There is safety in numbers and these little communities called creches serve the dual purpose of protecting the chicks and keeping them warm.

On land the youngsters face the threat of Giant petrels and skuas which like to snatch up penguin chicks. Meanwhile, out at sea the adults face the perils of leopard seals, their foremost enemy, and the occasional killer whale too. If they manage to avoid these predators, the adult penguins can live up to 20 years.